About Tami

Short Bio

Tami sometimes performs as Comfort Cat and started her musical career as a classical violinist in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, though, she started writing songs, playing in bands, learning ukulele, and aspiring to be a band leader herself. She has studied music at Sarah Lawrence College (where she met Hana), in the U.K. at Dartington College of Arts during its last year of existence, and at Bath Spa University. She now lives in Staten Island, where rent is cheap, the bagels are plentiful, and NYC is just a ferry ride away.

Long Bio

Tami didn’t sing for many years. She sang as a toddler, but became fiercely against the whole “singing” thing around age 5, suddenly feeling threatened by it. She still loved music, though, and learned violin at age 8. For a long time, she thought her path in life was to be a classical violinist, and studied this at Sarah Lawrence College, along with computer science and literature. The problem, though, was that she was incredibly lazy, angry, and had zero artistic restraint. This didn’t seem like a big deal until she studied in the U.K. at Dartington College of Arts during its last year of existence, from 2009 to 2010.

Tami loves cats and vegetables

At Dartington, she was expected to do whatever she wanted–which is actually much harder than it sounds. Her marks were not that great, and her instructor’s comments included that she had a “weird voice” and a “shitty violin pickup.” Her violin teacher had a good sense of humor, though: for example, he’d sometimes make her sightread misleadingly difficult music when she came to lessons hungover (like ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ for 2 Violins) and laugh at her confusion.

At DCA, Tami finally acknowledged that the classical world wasn’t right for her. She also wrote lots of songs there, which felt cathartic because, while studying classical violin at SLC, she had felt guilty about songwriting–as though it was procrastination. When she returned to SLC, she slacked off on the violin, learned ukulele, and wrote more songs. She would eventually return to the UK in 2013 to study songwriting at Bath Spa University.

Now, Tami makes a living as a freelance writer, blogger, and multimedia producer. She is also performs as Comfort Cat sometimes, which is very different from Neurofire.

Tami is grateful to know Hana, who is not only a great friend, but can sing her songs (e.g.”Lady,” “Cheesegrater,” and “Animal”) the way they were meant to be heard.